Friday Night

After 24 hours of NCLEX review spread over three days, I think I deserve a little break :)

i wan go home now!!

Last Day of Clinical

Yesterday was my last day of clinical. I only have to wear my nursing school uniform one last time for about 2 hours and then I can BURN IT!

On my last day I took care of a patient who'd been set on fire by her boyfriend several years back. She was on our floor for another reason though and was hell bent on getting outside to smoke a cigarette. She wouldn't do anything (or in her words, she "wasn't doin shit!!") until someone took her outside to smoke. She was pretty feisty and she could be kind of mean but I really liked her.

Baby's First Rectal Medication

I gave my first suppository the other day. The nurse I was working with said, "...patients ALWAYS refuse suppositories." But wouldn't you know it... when we asked the patient if they wanted it, the answer was a resounding "Yes!"

Burn Trauma

Last night we got a patient who'd lit up with his oxygen nasal cannula in causing an explosion that caught his face on fire. When he got to the floor his face was covered in dripping blood and the nurse had to carefully wash his face and shave him. She explained to me that patients with facial burns or burns on the head have to be shaved everyday -a rather painful process as you can imagine! I felt so bad for this guy. He was probably the most gruesomely injured patient I've seen so far.

This is the End

I'm in the final stretch of nursing school. Just a month and a half to go before my classmates and I emerge from under the protective wings of our instructors to hopefully not fall out of the nest onto our faces as new fledgling nurses!

Yesterday I started my preceptorship on the surgical trauma unit where I'll be working for the next 80 hours. I was expecting to see mostly traumatic injuries (as the name would suggest) but the patients I worked with last night had a whole range of histories from cancer to car crashes.

I'm happy to report that my preceptor is VERY nice and in fact all the nurses I met on the floor were friendly (no meanies)!!